People with intellectual disability in NSW are being hospitalised for conditions that could have been adequately managed in primary care, or through prevention, according to a study by UNSW researchers, just published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
The research revealed the rates of potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPH), said to be 3.5 to 4.5 times higher than the general population, could have been prevented through the provision of appropriate individualised health interventions or early disease management with vaccine-preventable conditions. People with intellectual disability were also found to be 22 times more likely to be hospitalised for convulsions and epilepsy compared to the NSW population.
“We already know from international research that people with intellectual disability experience higher rates of PPH generally and face stark health inequalities and barriers to accessing health care,” Professor Julian Trollor from the University of NSW Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry said.
To address this evidence gap, researchers analysed data collected over 15 years on 92,542 people with intellectual disability living in NSW and compared it to a cohort of the NSW general population.
According to researchers PPH are a marker of poor access to primary and community-based health care. “But we simply don’t have enough research into what actually drives PPH – in the general population, and even less so in people with intellectual disability,” Trollor said.
“That’s why we now need to find out why exactly that’s happening, and then do something about it. Governments, policy makers, services and professional groups have much work to do to improve health care for people with intellectual disability.”
Recommendations include a national population health strategy for people with intellectual disability and mandating reasonable adjustments in Australian health care to meet the needs of people with intellectual disability.